Nursing News

American Heart Month is celebrated each February to help motivate Americans to adopt healthy lifestyles and prevent heart disease. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. For this reason, it's important that we teach children at a young age how to keep their heart healthy!

Being physically active, eating healthier foods, getting enough sleep, not smoking and finding healthy ways to reduce stress are all important pieces of keeping your heart healthy.

Did you know that all of the MPSD School Buildings are designated as Heart Safe Schools through Project Adam? Each of our school nurses is a Certified CPR Instructor through the American Heart Association and we work each school year to certify many staff members in CPR/AED. These staff members then serve on their respective school's emergency response team. These teams practice emergency drills at least once per school year to ensure they are ready to respond in the event of an emergency at school.

Many adults choose to wear contacts over glasses for a number of reasons, including that they are easy and more comfortable than glasses. But what about contact lenses for children?

First of all, it's important to understand why a child may need vision correction. Some common reasons for vision correction include: to correct vision problems, to help strengthen the vision of a weak or lazy eye, to ensure proper eye positioning or to protect one eye if the other eye has poor vision.

Some people prefer contact lenses over glasses because they don't steam up or get water spots, they stay in place and don't restrict movement, they can be more comfortable than glasses and can be worn with sunglasses.

A lot of children benefit from wearing contacts and they can be an excellent option for many children but... they are a big responsibility as they take extra care and cleaning compared to glasses. For this reason, most eye doctors recommend children are at least 8-11 years old before they start wearing contact lenses.

To know if contacts are the right choice for your child, we recommend you speak with their eye doctor about it at their next appointment!

Did you know that there is no such thing as a hypoallergenic dog or cat? All furry animals (even those who that have "hair" instead of fur) shed allergens in their saliva and skin. This can still cause troubles for people with allergies. Certain furry animals may shed less than others and there are some non-furry pets that do not produce any allergens at all. Check out the below video for more information.

We can't say this enough... children do not learn well and cause a disruption in the classroom when they come to school ill! Please be conscious of when your child isn't feeling well and keep them home from school. Children should remain home from school when they have a fever >100.4, vomiting, diarrhea or uncontrolled coughing. They may return to school when they have been symptom free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications.

There are times when children become ill during the school day and need to be picked up. For this reason, please be sure to let the school office know if your contact information has changed

As a reminder, students are must have a signed medication consent form on file in order to take medications as school. Over the counter (OTC) medications require only parent/guardian signature but any prescription medications must have a signature from the prescribing medical provider

Do you have a child between the ages of 2 months and 5 years? We encourage you to register them for this important developmental screening to ensure he or she is meeting the important milestones!